Carbon Copy
by Cyclothymic
Summary: His father can't even stand to look him in the eye.


**Written for the "Weekly Family Challenge", week two.**

 **Character: Fred Weasley II**

 **Prompt: "I am your worst nightmare come alive."**

 **Word Count: 926**

Fred Weasley the Second had always had the loudest laugh. Every week, when the entire Weasley family is in the backyard of the Burrow, his laugh would be the one echoing off of the trees - granted, he was always the one that was making himself laugh.

His laugh would be the one that began the avalanche of other laughs. His face turned red with his giggles, and since his first laugh at just three months old, his laughter illuminated the faces of every person around him, causing them to laugh also. All except for one.

The older that Fred Weasley the Second got, the more he sounded like Fred Weasley the First-the more he sounded like Fred Weasley the First, the more that George Weasley wanted nothing to do with him. Fred remembered a night when he was only four years old, when he'd overheard his parents arguing.

 _Fred lied on the ground with his ear pressed against the vent-he'd discovered long ago that you could hear whispers from the kitchen through the vent in the hallway above it, although he'd hardly needed the vent to hear his parents._

" _What is wrong with you? He is your son! He wants to play with you, he wants you to snuggle him and sing him to sleep like you do to Roxanne. He wants you to teach him to fly like Harry does to James, to read him bedtime stories like Ron does to Rose. He can see the look in your eyes whenever look at him! For fucks sake George, he's four and he already thinks that you hate him!" Angelina was harshly speaking to her husband, and Fred could hear the distinct sound of his father putting down a glass cup-the little one that he always drinks out of whenever he is upset._

" _I don't hate him." George spoke plainly, but said nothing else._

" _Then start acting like it. I see what you do, George, I loved him too. But he is our son!" he could hear his mother's voice crack, and only wanted to hug his mother. Tears were streaming down Fred's usually smiling face and he sniffled. All was silent for a minute, and the only thing that Fred could hear was the clinging of the glass against the wooden table._

" _You act as though he is your worst nightmare come alive. He is your son, George, he deserves more than this. He deserves more than you." he could hear that his mum was sobbing by now, but muffled like her head was in her hands; something that he does when she thinks that Fred is asleep. He couldn't understand why she cried when she looked at him, and couldn't understand why his dad wanted nothing to do with him. Fred was wiping away his tears when he heard the sound of his mother coming up the stairs and he ran back into the room that he shared with Roxanne. A minute later, the door opened and his mother walked in. Pretending that he was asleep, she stroked his orange hair and stared at her son for a moment, lost in thought._

" _Mummy?" Roxanne spoke, interrupting the silence that was taking place._

" _Yes, love?" Angelina sat with her daughter, who had matching features to her brother._

" _Why can't daddy look at Freddy?" she spoke with such innocence that it made Angelina not be able to hold back a sob any longer, and Roxanne wiped away her tears with her small hands._

" _Freddy reminds daddy of someone that he misses a lot. He loves Freddy, he loves both of you, it's just hard for him," Angelina put her daughter back to bed and walked out, her quiet sobs echoing throughout the house._

Since that night, Fred did all that he could to try to make his father smile. He tried to do everything that he could to be like him-he started playing pranks on his cousins, even if he thought they were a bit mean, he heard that his father had done the same when he was young.

Fred stole the Marauder's Map out of Uncle Harry's desk with his cousin James when they were in fourth year because he'd heard stories about how his dad used it all of the time.

Fred nicked all of the joke products that he needed with James, and played practical pranks on family, friends and foes alike. Nobody was safe from the duo of Fred Weasley and James Potter.

Fred did everything that he could think of, but his father could hardly stand to be in the same room as him the older that he got. He thought his father would be proud that he was growing up to be like him-they'd even begun to look alike, which he thought that his father would enjoy, but it drove him further and further away from Fred. He even caught his other family members staring at him with the same expression, but with a large amount of pity directed towards him.

It wasn't until he was 17 that his family sat him down and told him about Fred Weasley the First, the man that Fred reminded George so much of, and the reason why George could hardly stand to look at him.

It was in that moment that Fred decided that he would try his hardest to live up to his name, and if it lost him his father in the process, then so be it. He would be everything that his uncle would have wanted him to be.


End file.
